Matt Aguiluz of A Living Soundtrack lived in Japan from 2011 to 2013, and while there he was involved in a life-threatening car accident when a passenger van he and his wife were on collided with a dump truck. Two people on the van died and Aguiluz had to be hospitalized with ruptured intestines. That experience led to Tezukayama, the new, half-hour long EP from the electronic duo—the first since 2011.

In 2008, John Michael Rouchell made himself an important part of the New Orleans music story. He recorded and released online a song a week for a year, and the musicians he worked with evolved into the band MyNameIsJohnMichael. The album culled from the best of those tracks, The People That Come and Go, found a spot where the folky, working class, storytelling songwriting of someone like Bruce Springsteen met indie rock.